I hope you, my friends, understand I'm too beat to do anything but show you a few from my trip today from NC to Zurich - then by car to Germany and the Lake of Constance in which I got to swim to my heart's content this afternoon.

5 women friends of long standing from a number of countries are living very cheap in the basement digs of a German friend, and we plan to explore the area for about 10 days.

Honestly, I'm clueless if what you see is worthwhile.
The first two are the airplane terminal in Zuerich, made me laugh.
Then the lake I swam in.
Then the happenstance of the old lady in the street's watering hole, cooling her heels, and whom I asked if she would let me take her picture. Then one of "us" joining her, after all, we were hot, too.

This is the text of a mass email from Alan Grayson tonight:
Republican Todd Long's disgraceful bigoted attack against Alan Grayson as "The most anti-Christian Congressman that we've ever had in our history" continues to reverberate around the Web. Here are some more comments that have been posted online:

"I live and vote in Alan's district. He is just the person to stand up to those Congressmen who would destroy America just to benefit the special interests who donate unlimited sums of campaign cash to Republicans. He is well-educated, has a background in the law, and willing to stand up for the average taxpayer! Last election, he was targeted by the special interest groups eager to silence him, and replaced by a puppet who marched to the Tea Party drum." - Jim51fla

"Grayson is more a follower of Jesus Christ than any one of his critics on the right. During Grayson's speech at the Florida Democratic Party, Alan Grayson . . . told the biblical story of Cain, who killed his brother with the jawbone of a donkey (which probably meant he wanted to blame it on the Democrats). quoted: 'And then when God said, "Where's your brother?" Cain said, "Am I my brother's keeper?" As if he had no idea. And that, is actually the fundamental question that separates us from them, right? Am I my brother's keeper? Our answer is, "Yes, we are." We are.'" - janmb

"I love Alan Grayson. He's observant, intelligent, outspoken, has great values and a keen moral sense, and to top it all off, he has a sense of humor. No Christian to whom Christianity is related to a code of ethics, to empathy for his or her fellow human being, to whom being a Christian is an injunction to err on the side of kindness, need ever fear Alan Grayson." - Godipo

"Love Alan Grayson. Love his assurance, enthusiasm, courage. I seem to remember an old saying about knowing the quality of a man by the depravity of his enemies. That makes Mr Grayson the greatest man in the nation! Go Grayson! Landslide these clowns!" - hitnmyths

Widely respected blogger Howie Klein had this to say:

"The part of Long's bizarre anti-Semitic diatribe that fascinated me was his assertion that Grayson "doesn't believe in any of the biblical values, doesn't believe in treating people well, doesn't believe in uniting the country, doesn't believe in solving problems." I honestly cannot name another Congressman who was more in synch with Jesus' most essential teachings than Alan Grayson. I mean, what did the Prince of Peace say about wars? Was anyone in Congress more devoted to peace than Grayson? What did Jesus say about healing the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the impoverished? Basically, Grayson did little else but work on these very issues! Unless Long is talking about some bizarre religious rites, like snake handling or whatever his crazy supporters are into, anyone examining Alan Grayson's record would come up with the opposite conclusion-- he's the most Christian-- or Judeo-Christian (or just plain ethical) Member of Congress in recent memory."

And then there was this telephone message:

"I just spoke to Jesus on the phone and he told me that Grayson will be going back to Congress this election, and that Todd Long is going to hell." - ProudElitist

How can we possibly let some hateful crackpot like Todd Long defeat us? How can we give someone like that any measure of control over our lives? If you haven't done it already, it's time to step up, be counted, and show your support at our "Beat the Bigot" contribution page. And do it now.

I would love to enter a photo in the contest, which, looking at what has been entered already, and anticipating what's still to come, I don't stand a chance of winning.

I will be away from the computer for about a month, starting the last week of August, and can't run the September contest in case of the unlikely win. As I said, I want to be responsible, so I'm asking for someone to be on standby to run it for me and in return I'll run it for that person when he/she needs for me to do it.